New Delhi: The final round of smart cities was finally announced and nine cities made the cut. The government on Friday announced the names of the cities that will receive the Centre’s funds under the Smart Cities Mission. 

Although, the Centre was to announce the names of the final ten cities on Friday but one of them, Shillong, could not submit its proposal.

In this Round of the national smart cities challenge, Silvassa from Dadar and Nagar Haveli topped the list, followed by Erode in Tamil Nadu; Diu in Daman and Diu and Bihar Sharif in Bihar.

Other cities who made the cut include three from Uttar Pradesh –Bareilly, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, and Kavaratti in Lakshwadeep.

These nine cities were selected out of the 15 cities that had submitted their proposals. These included Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Biharsharif  (Bihar), Amravati (Maharashtra), Erode and Dindigul (Tamil Nadu) and Moradabad, Meerut, Sharanpur, Bareilly, Rampur, Rae Bareli and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Silvasa (Dadra and Nagar Haveli), Kavaratti (Lakshwadweep) and Diu (Daman and Diu), according to the sources.

Uttar Pradesh that had been given 13 smart city slots, of which it won 10. Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s constituency Rae Bareilly and Delhi’s next door neighbour Ghaziabad are among the four cities from Uttar Pradesh that have failed to make it to the list of 100 smart cities this time.

Announcing the list of nine cities, housing and urban affairs minister Hardeep S Puri said, “The winning cities have improved the quality of their smart city proposals by 19 percent on an average to become eligible for the selection process. Each city has developed a unique vision and has selected an area based development (ABD) which will be developed as a lighthouse to be replicated by the city.”

The nine selected cities have proposed an investment of Rs 12,824 crore, of which Rs 10,639 crore would be in area-based development (ABD) and Rs 2,185 crore in pan-city initiatives, which would be impacting 35.3 lakh people living in these areas, the minister said.

These nine cities have approximately 409 projects. The breakup for sources of funding for these projects is as follows: Smart City Mission (with contribution from State and Centre) 61.25%, Convergence 24.19%, PPP 12.90%, own sources 1.57%, and other sources 0.09%.

Smart roads, rejuvenation of water bodies, cycle tracks, walking paths, smart classrooms, skill development centres, upgradation of health facilities and Pan City Projects, which include integrated command control centre, and ICT- based municipal services are the main projects on which the cities will focus on.

Meanwhile, with Friday’s announcement, as 99 cities have finally made it to the smart cities list; the total proposed investment in the Smart City Mission would Rs 2.04 lakh crore.

The 100 Smart Cities Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narender Modi in June 2015.

Meant to change the way urban India lives, smart cities will enjoy uninterrupted power and water supplies, internet connectivity, e-governance along with quality infrastructure, according to the government.

Under the programme, the Centre will spend Rs48,000 crore over five years. Each city will get Rs100 crore per year. A matching fund of Rs48,000 crore will have to be contributed by states from their internal resources or through market borrowing and through private sector.

The selection is based on the scores cities get for carrying out urban reforms in areas including sanitation and governance. Cities that score the highest will be picked for the project, to be implemented over a 10-year period.

The complete list of 100  Smart Cities in Each State & UT:

Till now, four lists have been announced, including the latest one. The first list included the names of 20 cities and Bhubaneswar topped it. The second list comprised of 13 names and it was first spot in this list was bagged by Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow. The third list, which had the names of 27 smart cities, was topped by Punjab’s Amritsar.

References:

http://www.hindustantimes.com

http://www.moneycontrol.com

https://www.i-scoop.eu

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com